Horsemeat could have been in British beef burgers for a year, FSA confirm

Catherine Brown, chief executive of the Food Standards Agency, told MPs that the Polish supplier at the heart of the scandal has been selling beef "filler" to an Irish meat processor for over a year.

Anne McIntosh, the chairman of the committee, said: "How do we know that this horse meat has not been in beef burgers for months if not years?"

Mrs Brown said: "It is possible that these burgers have been on sale in this country for a year. This filler had been used for a year. And therefore when the Polish get to the bottom of this we will hope to know whether it's likely that this has been going on for a year."

1. cow, pig, chicken....horse. same ol' same ol' except maybe if one has some sort of

5. Agree completely..the labeling is the only real problem I see here..

In fact I believe it was less than a decade ago that there were processors of horses for human consumption in my state. I believe USDA as recently resumed it's inspections of horse processors for human consumption in the US.

USDA Ready to Inspect Horse Slaughter By Year End
By Dan Flynn | July 30, 2012

Equine inspections will be back on the menu at USDA by the end of the year, according to Al Almanza, administrator of the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).

On Saturday, Almanza told the Texas-based Southwest Meat Association, meeting in San Antonio, that USDA will be ready to inspect plants that slaughter horses for human consumption by the end of the year.

The San Antonio Express-News quoted Almanza as saying FSIS had two applications for equine inspection at slaughter plants that “wanted to get started as soon as possible.”